Here's the Problem with Giving Everyone an AR-15

The FBI dropped by the Commonwealth (God save it!) again on one of its customary gun-grabbing exercises, this time aimed at a man who had exercised his Second Amendment freedom to arm himself as though the Wehrmacht would be dropping by to egg his house on Halloween.

On Aug. 26, 2017, federal agents conducted a search of Garguilo's residence and seized parts to assemble an AR-15 rifle, ammunition for the AR-15 rifle, nine millimeter ammunition, chemicals that could be combined to create incendiary or explosive compounds, and hand written notes threatening violent attacks against members of the Islamic faith. As alleged in court documents, Garguilo is the subject of an active restraining order which prohibits him from possessing firearms and ammunition based upon a finding that "there is substantial likelihood of immediate danger of abuse…"

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Nope. Turns out it wasn't the Wehrmacht at all. Mr. Garguilo had other plans.

According to the charging documents, on July 27, 2016, the FBI received information Garguilo had recently acquired parts to make an AR-15 rifle, and he was stockpiling other weapons including tasers, mace guns, hunting knives and thermite (an incendiary). Around the same time Garguilo allegedly stated that "he will plant a bomb in police station…and kill as many homeland security officers as he can before they kill him." The FBI then initiated an investigation. In recent days, the FBI learned that Garguilo had stated that he wanted to attack a mosque and/or kill President Obama. Garguilo also allegedly said he wanted to, "chain a mosque closed and burn it down." Garguilo did not mention any specific mosque or time for this attack. The FBI also learned that Garguilo was stockpiling food and water as part of his plan, and that an acquaintance of Garguilo's believed he was "about to snap."

I'm no great fan of the way Carmen Ortiz runs her office, and we don't know yet if this is the result of some FBI terrorist cosplay again, but this seems pretty damn serious. According to the complaint, he also was under a restraining order brought by "a family member," who also seems to be the person who tipped the FBI off to this arsenal.

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48-year old Joseph Garguilo accused of having weapons, indictment says he made threats about even the President pic.twitter.com/CoRhDUDur2

Someday, someone's going to have to do an academic study on the correlation between guys who plot mass attacks like this and domestic abuse. (Not that we can do much of anything about their ability to stockpile weapons. Thanks, Wayne!) There seems to be a lot of overlap.